This invention relates to an improved portable foldable playpen for children.
A wide variety of playpens have been designed and suggested for use in the past. Many such playpens have been collapsible and of the knock-down type. These have included playpens with various types of frame assemblies, as well as with various types of enclosures, such as fabric enclosures.
Thus, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,590,315 discloses a fabric enclosure which may be suspended from the legs of an inverted ordinary card table by fabric pockets which are closed at the top and open at the bottom. U.S. Pat. No. 4,538,309 discloses a knock-down portable playpen having a removeable fabric enclosure like that of U.S. Pat. No. 2,590,315, but with a frame assembly which has telescopically connected parts which may be assembled and disassembled and packed for transport.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,464,866 describes a playpen which may be folded into a carrying case-like arrangement after disassembly of the frame structure. U.S. Pat. No. 2,784,420 describes another knock-down playpen which has a frame made of disassembleable parts and to which a canvas enclosure may be attached. U.S. Pat. No. 2,491,036 similarly discloses a playpen having sidewalls of tubular frame members which may be separated for transportation together with a flexible netting enclosure which may be secured with the assembled frame members.
Patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,538,309 and 3,165,760 describe disassembleable playpen and crib arrangements in which the respective frames may be disassembled, and to which enclosures may be attached, with the floor of the enclosure spaced above a floor upon which the playpen is supported. French Pat. No. 1,557,841 discloses a foldable playpen having a foldable frame and an attached enclosure of fabric, and German Pat. No. 481,037 discloses a child's playpen which is foldable as shown in FIGS. 1-3 thereof.
Although some of the playpens referred to are foldable, when they are folded they are generally of a size which is at least as large as one of the sides of the playpen or one of the floor sections of the playpen. Of those which are disassembleable, they usually require disassembly into a plurality of frame elements which must later be reassembled, and the enclosure thereafter attached.
It would be of advantage to provide a much more compact folded assembly than the prior art suggests or discloses, and one which does not require disassembly or reassembly of the frame or reattachment of the enclosure to the frame when the playpen is unfolded after transport. It would also be of advantage to provide an improved frame assembly and an improved enclosure for a children's playpen.